One of the biggest stories in the SEC heading into the 2025 campaign was the announcement from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey that the league will officially be moving to a 9-game in-conference schedule starting in 2026.
This new format comes after the SEC had been utilizing an 8-game format for in-conference play since the 1992 season, and was the only major conference to not implement the 9-game format.
All of that is finally changing next season, though, and the league office officially announced Friday that they will be unveiling the schedule for the next 4 years during an hour-long reveal show on the SEC Network on Sept. 23.
Along with laying out the schedule for each team for the next several years, next Tuesday’s reveal will also unveil who each team’s 3 permanent opponents will be, which is what most people have been dying to find out since the changes were announced.
This was a massive point of emphasis for the conference in shifting to the new 9-game format, as Sankey said last month their focus was on preserving long-standing, traditional rivalries, while the other 6 matchups would be subject to review based on a number of factors.
“Some of these (3) annual opponents will remain and are not up for debate,” Sankey said. “But others, based on geography, fit and competitive balance, will be subject to that review.”
This new shift in scheduling is going to have a massive impact on both the conference and the College Football Playoff, so it will be interesting to see who ends up playing who over the next 4 years.
